Academic Staff Assembly (ASA) Minutes
Minutes (DRAFT)
ACADEMIC STAFF ASSEMBLY
Monday, April 9, 2001
272 Bascom Hall (3:30 - 5:15)
A. INTERIM PROVOST GARY SANDEFUR CALLED THE MEETING TO ORDER AT 3:30
P.M.
B. AUTOMATIC CONSENT BUSINESS
The minutes of the 3/19/2001 Academic Staff Assembly meeting were approved as presented
C. Memorial Resolution for Marilyn "Mimi" Orner read by Mariamne Whatley.
D. CHANCELLOR JOHN D. WILEY
Chancellor Wiley talked about how a negative campus climate can adversely affect the work life or studies of minority and women students, staff, and faculty. He is convinced that this is a serious issue on our campus as well as at other institutions. With only "six degrees of separation" between people in the community, Wiley stressed that we should always be aware of how our words and actions reflect our attitudes.
He challenged the academic staff to find ways to address the campus climate to make it better. The chancellor welcomes emails and phone calls with suggestions for making this campus a place where all people are valued for their unique styles and contributions.
E. COMMITTEES AND REPORTS
1. ASEC ANNOUNCEMENTS AND ACTIVITIES - Wilt Sanders, Chair
Town Meetings: To be held April 24, 4:00 at Grainger and April 25, noon, at the School of Nursing Conference Room at the Clinical Sciences Center. These meetings are sponsored jointly by ASEC and the Madison Academic Staff Association. All academic staff are encouraged to attend one or both of these sessions.
Committee Appointments based on recommendations from the Nominating Committee: 3-year terms unless otherwise noted.
-
Transportation Committee: reappoint Kent Hooker, reappoint Ted Crabb until he retires (12/01)
-
Student Academic Misconduct Hearing Panel: reappoint Consuelo Lopez Springfield and Robin Kurtz. Appoint Aubrey Conover.
-
Retirement Issues Committee: Robert Fessenden and Lois Komai.
-
Morgridge Center Advisory Board - Jane Cramer
-
Reappointment to the Recreational Sports Board - John Staley
-
Student Non-Academic Misconduct - Jim Cooley
-
Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual Committee - Carolyn Virginia
-
Distinguished Prefix Review Committee - Phil Pelliteri and Sherie Sondel (reappointments), Chuck Heikkinen, Laurey Martin-Berg.
ASEC activities:
-
Met with CASI reps on March 29
-
Faculty Senate meeting on April 2
-
Brown bag lunch with Assembly reps on April 5
-
Lunch with Regent Fred Mohs on April 6
Current projects:
-
Preparing a campus response to the UW System Working Group on proposed titling recommendations (send input to Wilt)
-
Prohibited harassment language for academic staff
-
Academic staff endowment fund - identify ways to get more contributions
-
Web group - progress on new AS web pages, work will continue through the summer. (input to Colleen McCabe or Greg Iaccarino)
Items for the May Assembly meeting:
-
Standing Committee elections
-
Introduction of Academic Staff Excellence Award winners
-
Staff endowment fund - discussion
-
Prohibited harassment language
2. Compensation and Economic Benefits Committee (CEBC) - Janice Cyzscon for Ron Carda, Chair
The CEBC has a web site they keep current with minutes of their meetings and other relevant information and documents. Based on the interest in the brown bag they held on Feb. 12 related to the job promotion flyer, the committee has planned more programs for next year. One will be on understanding benefits and perhaps another one on retirement planning.
The committee has been considering Category A salary caps with members of the PPPC. They held a joint meeting in April to talk about how to approach the problem.
Another discussion was whether or not to take some action to make information about the disability retirement benefit more widely available to academic staff. The committee will make some inquiries and report back to the Assembly.
The CEBC has been working to support a grassroots campaign in favor of domestic partner health benefits reimbursement. A letter to John Wiley is circulating that encourages him to provide a plan for UW-Madison. Several politicians and city and school board officials have been part of this movement. CEBC urges all to sign on to support this issue.
3. Districting and Representation Committee (DRC) - Mary Ray, Chair (by email)
This month, the DRC moved people into the new districts 261 (instructional staff in social sciences) and 432 (clinical nurse specialists in medical specialties). People will be moved into new district 401 (managers in biotechnology) at the end of this month.
Sometime during April, the Public District Profile, which is available at the DRC web site, will be changed, so that you have access to the updated descriptions of all the districts.
Currently, the DRC is also talking to representatives about ways to adjust the membership of districts that have become larger or smaller than required parameters, and we hope to implement these changes by next fall. However, we do not anticipate these changes being significant enough to require an Assembly vote.
4. Personnel Policies and Procedures Committee (PPPC) - Ann Wallace, Chair
5. Nominating Committee - Karen Carlson, Chair
6. Professional Development and Recognition Committee - Jackie Hank, Chair
7. Legislative Update - Esther Olson
Hearings will be held tomorrow at the Assembly Health Committee on AB 69 introduced by Marvin Schneider that would allow conversion of sick leave credit to pay for long-term health care insurance premiums. ASPRO will be testifying in support.
On April 11, ASPRO, PROFS, and the Chancellor's Office will speak to the Joint Finance Committee's budget hearings in support of the Regents' economic stimulus proposal.
The students are sponsoring a rally on April 20 at the Capitol on tuition and financial issues as they relate to the governor's budget.
Senate Bill 125 (Risser) would eliminate the requirement that state employees have to exhaust all their sick leave before they could become eligible for income continuation insurance benefits. That bill has been referred to the Committee on Government Operations.
GUEST SPEAKER: ANNIE STUNDEN, DIRECTOR OF THE DIVISION OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY (DoIT)
Annie Stunden made a presentation about various initiatives going on at the UW on "E-Whatever." She talked about projects DoIT staff are working on that use current technology to make it easier and more efficient to gain access to information. Some of these projects involved ecommerce, the student portal, middleware infrastructure, and a unified directory. Web applications already in use are purchasing through MDS, the WISC storefront, and admissions applications. DoIT's short-term challenge is to select campus-wide email and calendaring systems by this summer.
OTHER BUSINESS
E. OLD BUSINESS
1. Professorial Title series - update
The UW System Working Group recommendations are on the web site on your
green handout www.uwsa.edu/acadaff/ias
Wilt will be working on a draft response. After ASEC has had a chance
to review it, the draft will be circulated to Assembly and CASI reps.
2. Motions to amend Academic Staff Policies and Procedures
The three motions introduced at the March Assembly meeting were referred to the Personnel Policies and Procedures Committee. The PPPC report (yellow sheets in your packets) has the motions restated along with discussion points and clarification. Ann Wallace cautioned that some personnel polices are governed by UWS (System-wide policies) and cannot be amended at the campus level without System approval.
Becky Kirkland explained to the Assembly that these motions would allow the same reappointment and priority referral rights to academic staff whether they have been renewed or laid off due to funding loss or other events beyond their control.
The issue of "fairness" was a theme of both supporters and detractors of these motions. Ann stated that proper notice is fundamental to the first two motions because nonrenewed staff have a prescribed minimum amount of time (based on longevity) to look for other job opportunities. Under current ASPP 5.04, the person who is laid off gets priority referral because the shorter notice period creates a more dire situation for the employee. Supporters of the motions felt that both nonrenewals and layoffs are traumatic, since they both mean loss of a job, and should be treated similarly.
Judy Manning brought up the issue of routine nonrenewals for people on soft money research grants where annual notices were sent just in case of funding loss. Ann stated emphatically that this practice is being dropped.
In regard to the third motion, to amend ASPP 5.08, Ann pointed out that fixed term appointments carry no right to reappointment. This is stated in UWS and cannot be changed through ASPP.
Since more discussion seemed warranted on all motions before a vote on these issues, Barry Robinson moved to postpone consideration until the May Assembly meeting. Seconded. Motion passed.
F. NEW BUSINESS
None.
Meeting adjourned at 5:15 p.m.
Submitted by Colleen McCabe
Secretary of the Academic Staff